"About half of workers in the US aged 50 to 54 are involuntarily pushed out of long-term jobs before they expect to retire, according to the Urban Institute, a policy research non-profit. The pandemic only intensified those pressures. Roughly 5.7 million workers over 55 lost their jobs in early 2020, and many have yet to return to stable work, according to the Economic Policy Institute, also a research organization."
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When I read this I wonder. Did they keep their skills sharp and up to date? In IT/tech I have seen many older folk coast. They lose their drive and if they don't move into leadership / mentorship roles over younger professionals their value to salary diminishes. I'm entering this range myself and am keenly aware of maintaining relevance.
There is actually massive value with a very experienced IT / Engineer that understands how to effectively use AI. Largely due to their life experience. People with less experience have a harder time seeing the nonsense that chatbots and coding tool spit out.
Having coached engineers I've seen that a large percentage do not realize or maybe want to acknowledge that no one owes them anything. It's an exchange. And at the same time many underestimate their broad experience value while sometimes overvaluing their seniority.
I blame a lot of this on our culture. Far too many people buy the nonsense of social justice and altruism. They seem to only see it when it should come their way. Few see the greed in themselves, only the greed in others.
There is no question it's a paradigm shift, and I agree with you people fail to remember their compensation is transactional. The idea of being "owed" anything extra is a leftover from earlier generations. Many in their 50s were raised by parents who in fact worked in such environments and gained seniority, so it's natural for them to still assume the same. It was part of their framework before the 1990s up-ended everything and did away with pensions etc. The impact now is that the paradigm shift is hitting such high number of people at the same time. And it's not really an age thing; it's just that older workers aren't bouncing back. Agism is definitely present. And their skillset is already out of date with the latest entry-level demands. Unless you are constantly spending time, energy and money re-training, you can't keep up; most of your focus is holding onto the job you have so you fall behind in the sharpest skills. The majority can't shift to consulting or doing their own business, so they struggle to find another paycheck style job replacment now.
I don't disagree. But really, the constant learning has always been the case in tech. That is one reason it pays well. When I entered this field in the 2000s I expected this to get harder as I aged.
The world you speak of from our parents generation with pensions and working at one employer for life is an anomaly in history. We just have very short memories. Even the idea of jobs is recent. The world is evolving again and we just have to adapt. It is harder for the older folks in times of transition.
Tech definitely had the constant learning. I remember folks spending $10k a year to keep current on training. But that was not the same for other industries. And that's what's happening now. The paradigm is broad-scale, not just limited to tech.
That's wild. I have NEVER spend anywhere near that to stay current. I'm fact, there has never been more free resources. Honestly it's a great time to be in software if you ask me.
Yeah, that was generally the days before the Internet. Keeping up with languages was hellish then.
Ha, yeah. It's so relatively easy now.